Welcome to the penultimate edition of Weekend Links for the year 2025. The baseball cycle of life seems to be cycling faster and faster as the years go by. Before we know it, Rex will be sending us pictures of players stretching and playing catch. January is always the slowest month for me, and probably you, but we do have plenty to discuss this week.
As the headline suggests, some key decisions on the third base market will be made this weekend. Korean Gold Glove third baseman Sung-Mun Song’s posting window closes on Sunday. Song has not received the same level of attention as his Japanese counterparts, but he is 29 years old and just tore up the KBO.
Message boards out of Korea link him to the Angels and Padres. We shall see.
That shows up in English in my feed but that glitch is too funny to take out. We’re linking Korean now. How’s that for a full service Angels site?
24 hours later the posting window for the much more heralded Munetaka Murakami closes. His market has been eerily quiet, but remember Ohtani kept his market quiet as well. Here’s a stab at making sense of Murakami’s market as his deadline looms.
There’s a bit of a gap between those two windows closing and the deadline for the player who looks like the surest bet needing to make a decision. Kazuma Okamoto has until January 4th to strike a deal.
Perhaps the pursuit of a third baseman is occupying Perry Minasian’s time. But he did have time to speak to the media and make a couple of minor bullpen moves. First, Perry stated what we’ve been saying all along: the Angels need to take some gambles on younger players and have them pay off.
That comment tracks with the rumor of being a suitor for the 29 year old Song. But ironically it came the day after he signed 37 year old Drew Pomeranz and 32 year old Jordan Romero for the bullpen.
Those signings followed former Angels closer Kenley Jansen’s move to the Detroit Tigers; a move that puts the Angels bullpen in a bit of a flux.
All of those comments are well and fine. No GM is going to show their full hand and he’s being as honest as a GM can publicly be. However, he kept going and got into some scary or laughable comments about Mike Trout returning to center field.
Now, I realize he can’t say “we desperately need an outfielder” then try to play hardball with the agents of outfielders. But this is just asking to be the butt of jokes across the baseball world.
I’m not so certain the Angels really need to go sign a centerfielder, either. I learned long ago that Turk’s Teeth is right about players far more often than not and he’s on the Nelson Rada for centerfield wagon. Now FanGraphs is backing that up with some predictions.
I’d bet the under on those 9 home runs every day, but FG has great prospect rankings and evaluators and if they think the kid can hang at the MLB level, who am I to argue?
That said, we need to add a capable outfielder and the Giants just DFA’d Joey Weimer. He’s better than Teodosio with the bat and likely overall better than Matthew Lugo. We could do worse for a fourth outfielder while the latter two season in AAA.
Exactly who the Angels sign may be determined by the outcome of the Tyler Skaggs trial. Closing arguments wrapped up this week and the jury is deliberating.
Two days of deliberations did not produce a verdict and the jury asked two questions at the end of Wednesday. One was related to damages and the other was what happens if they do not reach a verdict by the end of today. For no outwardly logical reason there were no deliberations yesterday. Perhaps Charles can jump in with an explanation because I certainly can not.
From around baseball:
The Dodgers now have over $1,000,000,000 in deferred money on the books. That money runs through 2047 and I’m sure it will create a nice grandfathered loophole for any attempts at a cap in the next CBA.
Luke Weaver left the Yankees to head to the Mets on a 2 year deal. That seems to be quite the pattern nowadays. This is a fun list of players who have crossed from the Bronx to Queens over the years.
So as we wrap up the last real work week of the year and get ready for two weeks of family, friends, food, and probably some chaos I want to sincerely wish you all happy holidays. Whether you celebrate Hannukah or Christmas or Festivus, do so with loved ones and a smile on your face.
We’ve been cruising the neighborhoods with good lights, took the Irvine Railroad Park train to the North Pole and even hit up Disneyland to get into the holiday spirit. Christmas is so much great as a dad and I’m trying to fill the boy with memories of happiness and love.
So please link what I missed. Spend time with loved ones. And be happy and safe over the next week.
